The Westside Park Murders

Muncie's Most Notorious Cold Case

Keith Roysdon, Douglas Walker

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439671962
• Edition: 0

On a warm night in September 1985, teenagers Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were brutally murdered in Westside Park in Muncie, Indiana. Their killer has never been charged. Early on, police focused on a family member of one of the teens as a primary suspect. The investigation even ruled out fantastic scenarios, including a theory that the perpetrator was a Dungeons & Dragons devotee. The case grew cold. Only decades later did a dogged police investigator narrow the scope to a suspect whose name has never been publicly revealed until now. Keith Roysdon and Douglas Walker, authors of Wicked Muncie and Muncie Murder & Mayhem, have followed the investigation into the Westside Park murders for decades and, for the first time, report the complete and untold story.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The Friday Before
• 2. That Night
• 3. Word Spreads
• 4. The Autopsies
• 5. The Early Investigation
• 6. Back to School
• 7. A Violent History
• 8. More Investigation, More Murders
• 9. Fear and Loathing in Muncie—and Florida
• 10. Muncie in 1985
• 11. A School in Controversy
• 12. “Ethan Got What He Deserved”
• 13. Movie Theaters, Cruising and Hanging Out
• 14. Indian Hill
• 15. The Mall Was King
• 16. The Traffic Stop
• 17. Middletown, the Typical Small American City
• 18. Political Players in Muncie
• 19. A Nice Place
• 20. Lovers’ Lane Murders
• 21. The Concordia, Kansas Murders
• 22. The Friend, Rambo and Other Theories
• 23. The Year Following Westside
• 24. Tragedy and the Winters Brothers
• 25. Anniversaries of the Case
• 26. Through Fresh Eyes
• 27. The Railroad Killer
• 28. “You Know What For”
• 29. The Group
• 30. The Murder of Brian Insco
• 31. “One Homicide After Another”
• 32. Sixteen of 160
• 33. The Tragic Death of Sam Drummer
• 34. The Focus Narrows
• 35. “You Talking About the Park? Kids?”
• 36. “My Son Was a Sweet Boy”
• 37. “It’s a Dowell. There’s No Question.”
• 38. “We Were All Suspects”
• 39. The Prosecutors
• 40. The Homicide Team
• 41. Second-Guessing the Investigators
• 42. The Appeal
• 43. The Second Encounter
• 44. Cold Cases as Entertainment
• 45. Justice Delayed
• 46. “What Were They Thinking About?”
• Bibilogrophy
• About the Author